Slugfest, stolen signs?

The Reds’ six-game winning streak ended in a slugfest on Monday with a 10-9 defeat to the Indians. As you will read in my game story, Mat Latos took on some of the blame but also implied that Cleveland engaged in stealing signs to jump on some of his pitches.

“I was a little up in the zone. I thought I made some good pitches that they spit on with a runner on second base,” Latos said. “I suppose it was kind of ironic. We changed up the signs, for the last hitter unfortunately. The outcome changed when we changed up the signs today.”

Latos line: 4 ip, 8 H, 7 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 3 HR. Cleveland had a total of seven extra base hits. For Latos, who blew three different leads, it snapped a personal five-decision win streak. He hadn’t lost a game since April 18.

Click herefor the game story to see more. The full version should be up shortly.

The Three Stars:

No. 3 star: Brandon Phillips — 3-for-5, 1 RBI, 3 runs scored.

“Both teams were swinging the bat well,” Phillips said. “They just outhit us. I know there were a lot of entertained fans seeing everybody hitting the ball well.”

No. 2 star: Shin-Soo Choo, CLE — 2-for-5, 1 double, 1 HR, 2 RBI. Choo hit a leadoff homer against Latos in the bottom of the first after Joey Votto hit a solo shot in the top half. Choo has been a Reds killer for a while it seems.

I’m a lifelong Reds fan and I love Mark’s 3 stars and especially the fact that it’s objective. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but do even read his blog? He’s one of the first people to report with any Reds news or updates! He even updates his updates!

The Reds would make excellent trade partners—of course Lowe would not be involved,seriously their team and some of their players at Columbus aaa-il would fit the Reds very nicely—well what do you think?

One more thought, I never saw a strike zone change as quickly as last night. Once we got to the bottom of the 7th it instantly went to a normal called strike zone with that inside corner. Oh well cant win them all.

I guess I don’t understand why major league players seem to complain about sign stealing. Is it actually against the rules? The signs should be changing ALL THE TIME to avoid any chance of that sort of thing. As a fan that never played, I just assumed that’s how it would be done. They use lots of different signs for stealing, bunting, etc. right? Don’t they assume that those would be stolen? Why not pitches?

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